As far as your 'one more question' goes, I'd love to know the answer myself. For both my Roman and Celtic parties I spent as many points on characteristics as I could, then filled in with skills after. That made them pretty well-rounds to start, and they were able to rise quickly in relatively inexpensive skill levels as they went up in character levels.
I made a small exception for the druids, raising the circles, druidism and intelligence as high as possible and scanting all the rest. I think I remember my Roman druid also having some skill in first aid, but not to excess.
I like your choices for traits, though I usually only have one mighty warrior/fast on his feet. I can understand why you'd make it universal for warriors. I prefer a little more roleplaying than power gaming.
In my Celtic party the second warrior has faerie blood and faerie familiar, but that would hardly be appropriate for a proper Roman. I only vaguely recall, but I think my second Roman had toughness (resists damage) and good health (recover half your health once a day). It seems like my javelineer had strong back (to help him carry the javelins… and loot!) and beastmaster, but I didn't utilize his summoned beasts well, and that was a waste. If you're good at things like that, I'd suggest doubling up with beastmaster and faerie familiar, otherwise just leave them alone.

Like you, I'm coming back to this game after a multi-year absence. Most of my previous experience was playing as the Romans, though I never got beyond the free preview section of the map.
1) I had one spearman and the rest swordsmen for their melee weapons. I used only javelins for the Romans (and only slings for the Celts). I found them to be very effective, but a considerable encumbrance.
Note that I resented that Celts had unlimited ammunition for their slings, but javelins run out very quickly, so after every fight I'd 'Edit Character' to replace the javelins I'd lost. I did limit the number of 'special' javelins to whatever I'd discovered. For example, after I found five blessed javelins, I made sure to never carry more than five around at once. I just assumed I was reusing ones I found lying around after the battles.
2) I found that evasion works better for my Celt characters than it ever did for my Romans. In the case of the Romans, I went for the best armor I could find for three of them. Note that 'evasion' is also a useful tactic, and if you aren't adjacent to your opponent you can often walk backward three or four spaces, then turn and fire. Your opponents might have to undergo two or three volleys before they come to contact and can melee with you. Sometimes (especially on the outdoors maps) you can retreat too far and exit the field of battle, which is annoying. I wish there was some sort of boundary marking so you'd know when you were about to retreat too far.
3) If you can afford trainers, I would pay for training rather than use skill points. I never had that much money, so I saved it to buy the training I wasn't allowed to spend skill points on.
4) My Roman party consisted of three fighters and one druid. Two of the fighters were melee specialists with heavy armor — one with a sword and the other with a spear. Both carried a few (c. 3) javelins for softening up. The other was a javelineer with the third best armor. He carried 10-15 javelins, including all of the 'special' ones. He used a sword for melee, but if he became engaged, that meant I was in trouble. The Druid also had a blade of some sort (blessed dagger, ceremonial dagger, whatever), but I used him exclusively for magical support. I think he only got into combat three or four times (fighting one of the Black Beasts, against the Fomorians who live under the bridge, and in the Crones' cellar — maybe against the Dragon).

I have two wands, but I'm reluctant to use them. How many times may a wand be used?
I'm assuming there is some number of charges (whether fixed or variable), or some percentage chance that it turns to dust every time it's fired.

So, which items require the Armor Use skill?
My assumption is that clothing items (glove, tunic, cloak, shirt, pants, robe, stola, toga, boots, sandals) do not, regardless of how high their protection value.
Likewise, I assume that anything with 'armor', 'shield', 'helm' or 'bracers' in the title, along with gauntlets, do require it. How close am I?

If you carry some food around with you, you could just leave the adventure site (go outdoors) and camp briefly to recover power. I don't know whether that would also recover the special ability of regenerating half (rounded down) of your power.
Thank you for your responses. I've now finished the Goblin Pits, except for two rooms on the third level that are behind forcefields. I'm going to have to wait until I'm MUCH higher level than 6th before I can survive that specter/ghost/whatever. He killed two of my characters in one round without my affecting him at all.

The Nethergate version of Blessing is very cheap (2 power), but their version of haste costs 12 power, which is quite expensive even for my current 6th level characters, especially since it has a shorter duration than either Shielding or Blessing. Most of the time Haste is a luxury I can't afford, though I did just use it on two characters in my last fight.
ince I'm usually fighting in doorways or narrow corridors, I'm finding it more cost effective to start by Shielding my tank, then Blessing the tank, followed by the other fighter. After that he could Shield the other fighter or Bless the healer (who provides some missile support), but usually he throws three flame bolts, and those spells give me more utility for my 12 power than briefly Hasting one fighter.
I suppose I could try Hasting the combat druid. Would that allow him to throw two spells in a round? That could be useful.

Thank you, Randomizer! Because you responded so quickly, I reward you with additional questions (anyone else should feel free to chime in):
Are the Hags of Hagfen the same as the Three Crones? Corollary question: Is Hagfen the swamps that surround the Crones' hut?
My Celtic group is comprised of two fighters and two druids. The druids have clothing (druid robes, trousers, gloves, boots), leather helmets and small wooden shields. They have no levels in armor wearing, and they both generate 4 AP/turn and move third and fourth. (Usually our opponents move after the combat druid and before the healer, but a few move before the combat druid.)
The fighters each wear clothing (trousers, gloves, boots), an iron helmet, chainmail and a large shield — metal for the tank and wood for the other. They each have two levels in armor wearing. Until recently, the tank was pretty consistently getting 5 AP and moving first, and the other 4 AP and moving second. (Only one monster has been fast enough to slot between them.)
Once I realized that the tank was absorbing about 60% of the damage inflicted upon the party, I switched his wooden shield for the other fighter's metal one. To reduce the load the healer was hauling around, I also switched helmets with him, which didn't affect the defense of either (both 6%), but added a couple of pounds to the tank. Now the tank is alternating between 3 and 4 AP, though still moving first. Since he's at the front of the group, this is humbugging me. I'm assuming the large iron shield is just too much for him, although it didn't appear to be too much for the other fighter.
The questions here are: How many additional levels of armor wearing would the tank need to get back up to 5 AP? And, considering how much more effective the magical shield spell is than all the defensive equipment put together, should I just revert to leather and wood for both fighters? (They wouldn't give up their chainmail.)
Finally, for now, Celts can buy healing herbs inexpensively from the healer just outside Shadowvale. Is there anyplace to pick up energetic/spiritual herbs… at any price? My combat druid is running through power points like water. (I seem to remember having the same problem with my sole wizard when I played Romans some years ago.)

I've done as much as I can in the pits and am about to start toward the Ruined Hall. My problem is that there are places I can't reach.
On the map of level two in the Book of Answers, it shows three rooms and a stairway that are on the other side of a body of water. I don't know whether the stairs go up or down, but they don't connect to any stairs I've found on the first or third level. I foolishly assumed that the spell that allows you to walk on lava would also allow you to walk on water, but it doesn't. How do I get to the other side of the water?
On the third level, I can't get into the Goblin Treasury. Again, I foolishly assumed that the portal opening spell would unlock the gate, but it doesn't. Where is the key?
Near the lava pits at the lefthand side of the third level there's a room with three vapor rats that has a ledge around two sides. There's a body on the ledge, but I can't get up there. How is this accomplished?
Finally, it's been several years since I last played, and I don't remember how spells are acquired. My combat druid has level 8 in combat and level 6 in beast spell skills, but only up through level 4 spells. Similarly, my healing druid has level 7 in healing and 6 in craft spell skills, but still only four levels of each type of spell. How do I learn the higher level spells?

My best friend runs N:O on his Windows XP machine. The one thing I prefer from that version is that you actually have to eat food periodically. One thing that annoys me about N:R is that I carry food around for 'realism' purposes, but I never need to eat.
Actually, there's something else that annoys me about all Spiderweb games, and that's that I can walk into a store, pick something up off the counter, then sell it to the shopkeeper I just stole it from.

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES
The bigger problem, however, is that your party's experience is now lopsided, which is irritating.
Oh, and also there's the whole "all his items are on the floor and I have no room to put them in anyone else's pack" problem. That's a pretty major one.
All this goes to show that YMMV. I'm obsessive/compulsive, and having unbalanced character experience bothers me not one whit.
And having no room to put all a deceased character's stuff is one of the interesting problems the game provides for us to solve. I remember one Celtic party that had to roam across two zones twice to pick up all the crap they'd lost when two party members were slain.
On the other hand, I do agree that there are times to use 'save-and-reload'. In N:R I used it the first time I ran across the Formorians at the toll bridge. After fighting them six or eight times quickly without being able to kill more than one or two, I satisfied myself that I should pay them whatever they asked. I also did the s-a-r the first time I faced the dragon in the goblin mines (as the Romans).
And there are games that are unplayable without s-a-r. Wesnoth, one of my favorites, immediately comes to mind. In that game you can't avoid problems, and you can't progress in the game until each problem is solved. Every campaign (except a couple of the shorter introductory ones) has one or two places where I'd go insane from the monotony of playing the same two hours twenty or thirty times to get past a sticky spot, so I've established a policy that if I can't get past a scenario after three or four 'honest' tries, I'll use s-a-r to refight until the luck is even on both sides. (Wesnoth keeps a running tab on your luck and the AI's.)
I tell myself that's not cheating, but there have been a couple of campaigns where I had to cheat like a sonovabitch to get past a certain point.

One good thing about the original is that it made you eat food while resting in order to get benefit from the rest. Although the remake claims it does, also, in fact I've never consumed a morsel of food in that game, which makes me wonder why they bother including it.
Another difference (which I could see being either a plus or a minus) is that in the remake not everything you find — not even everything with a value attached to it — can be 'cashed in'. I believe the breakoff point is $5, so anything you find worth $4 or less you don't have to bother dragging back to your base. That saves you time, but means you end up with less money, and fewer opportunities to encounter random monsters.